Best Buy and Future Shop are consolidating as Best Buy. This means the products, services, and features you have come to expect from Future Shop and FutureShop.ca will now be available at Best Buy and BestBuy.ca. We have plans to invest up to $200 million to build a leading multi-channel customer experience on the Best Buy brand.

CES 2011: Five examples showcasing Smart TVs at play

The hype on connected and app-enabled TVs at CES is true. Jeffrey Ingram from Samsung Canada and his team walked me through a five-step journey of examples to easily understand how these "smart" TVs can work and come to life in this connected world we live in.

Here's the summary showcasing how Samsung's Smart TVs sync with other Android-powered devices using the Allshare App:

1. Screen share - allows streaming of what's displayed on TV onto a Samsung Galaxy Tab or Galaxy S smart phone at the same time. So, you won't miss the next shootout goal or overtime winner if you wonder out of the living room to grab a snack or use the restroom.

2. Photo Share - The next time you want to share photos from the family vacation, why not put on a show from the comfort of the living room and use your Galaxy Tab or S smart phone to tell your laptop to display them on the 55" HDTV? That's the biggest highlight of Photo Share.

3. Video Share - We've heard of wi-fi hot spots, and now there's "zones" to activate activities like play video or music using the Galaxy Tab or S smart phone. Simply place the Tab or S smart phone in the area assigned to be placed for the activity programmed and automatically watch the output on your HDTV or device.

4. Multimedia Share - Allows you to stream a variety media (photos, movies, music) around the home or remotely. The Galaxy Tab or S smart phone acts as the remote control of what content you want to share or download.

5. Game Share - There are currently four games that will be available with Samsung's Allshare games: HomeRun Battle, Canimals Defense, Blackjack Masters and Catch Catch Canimals. You can play these games using the Galaxy Tab, S smart phone or the HDTV's remote as the controllers. Friends and family can join in the games with their Galaxy or S smart phone devices from anywhere in the world.

Smart TVs (aka "Connected TV," "Google TV", "Yahoo TV") are all about bringing more connectivity into our lives. The internet's allowing TV manufacturers to do more and bring-in the most popular activities carried out on our computers onto their bigger screens.

The apps and accessories that complement Smart TVs are pretty cool too. More on that tomorrow.